When does a plant become a plant?

[Jackalope]

There are so many interesting parts of a plants life. I catch myself all the time thinking. " This is when a plant becomes a plant". While I was re-potting the other day I did it again.

I am not saying insignificant. They are never that. It is just those certain times of the grow that become really special. First is when the tap root has taken form and the real leaves start to form. I always love this first sign of what a plant is going to look like. Is it a plant Yet?

Another great time is after the first re-pot. Plants really take off then and show you what kind of plants they want to be. Maybe this is the time?

If they are regular strains then they still could be male. So They can't be considered yet if you might kill them. So when they show sex they are a plant now?

When Crystals start showing up. It starts to get exciting. Now they are all female and putting out THC. So are they a Plant now?

These females can still hermie and still may be killed. Maybe you wait longer tell smell shows up?

I could go on but I won't. Please do not take this to serious and make it something it is not. I am just curious when a plant becomes really special to you guys.

 

[Orlando Scout]

To me it's as soon as the little babies pop their heads out from the soil. For some reason it's like having a newborn child for me lol. The rest is enjoyable like the first up pot or when they show sex. Everyone enjoys when crystals pack on and the smell begins to slap you in the face, but it's that infant stage I love!!! Hope your having a good one Jackalope!!!

 

[Cheesesteak Enthusiast]

Haha the thought of not considering them a plant until you determine if it will be a male, thus likely destroyed, hit me right in the feels for some reason.

 

[Ennui]

I'll play, in my brain-addled state!

Simple, universal answer is as soon as it's planted.

What makes it special is up to interpretation. For coffee lovers, the seed has to pass through the intestinal tract of a feline for the plant to be considered 'special'. Thank Mother Nature I don't have to sift poop for our variety of bean.

I think a more interesting journey can be booked when you start to think of all the ways a plant can get planted. I'd elaborate, but the wandering cursor is too distracting ATM.

 

[Jackalope]

I learned not to get attached growing regular strains. Lots of my favorite plants turned male. I had to kill them all. Hard to pamper something then kill it LMAO.

 

[GatorGumbo]

A seed is still a plant, it's a multicellular non-photosynthetic eukaryote of the kingdom Plantae. Poetically speaking I suppose a plant becomes a plant when it breaks soil. I guess you could say it doesn't become "weed" until flowering.

 

[Jackalope]

I would have to say the "Weed" part would come after they are dry. It is a hard life for a plant that can't prove its worth tell it is dead.

 

[TheFertilizer]

I would have to say the "Weed" part would come after they are dry. It is a hard life for a plant that can't prove its worth tell it is dead.

I've always found a little humor in the irony of us all taking such good care of our plants only to brutally murder them in the end. I think it's funny people like to talk to their plants, I like to do that but I'll just sit there whispering sweetly to them, "I'm going to cut all these little leaves off you, dry you out, grind up the rest of you, and burn you in my pipe." Then I laugh like Hannibal Lecter and pad my finger-tips together like Mr. Burns. It's a lot of fun

So maybe a plant is never really that special to me haha

Anyway, I count it as a plant when it's beyond the seedling stage once its exhausted the nutrients in its cotyledons and is actually feeding off the medium it's in. Basically once the leaves are fixing carbon and the roots are fixing nitrogen.

But I don't really think a plant becomes "special" to me until it's nearing sexual maturity. A lot of the times the males are always a bummer because they're often so much more vigorous, but on the other hand I kind of tend to tell myself, "That one is probably a male," so even if I think a plant is special I don't let myself get attached until I know their sex. In the case of feminized seeds or clones though, pretty much as soon as it is sexually mature.

I personally adhere to a, "Only the strongest will survive," mentality until they're sexually mature. Unless it's a clone off a plant I knew was good that is. The reason being is that, if a from seed is doing really poorly next to its siblings, it may just have dud genetics. I have wasted a good bit of time on plants that tasted and smelled great, but only to find they wouldn't yield squat because they would never have enough vigor. So it's important to me that I cull out any weaklings, and that means being pretty brutal so I never want to get attached to a plant too early on and then find out it's a runt.

 

[Jackalope]

Ever think maybe its the mean talk that makes them so potent. No telling what a little mental stress could do LMAO.

It is always great when the special plants show themselves. Somewhere as the plant matures it makes you go Holy Fu---. oh you guys get it the idea lol. Weather it is smell, crystal or huge buds. All plants are great. Its the ones that you can't wait to kill that are really special LOL.